40B Housing

While offering a very slight increase in affordable housing for Newton, State-approved 40B projects often produce massive developments out of character with Newton’s interests in creating new and affordable housing. I believe that this law has virtually become outdated with the State's new MBTA Housing law. In addition, Newton is about to break the 10% "Safe Harbor" threshold which will dramatically reduce the power of developers using 40B designations.

528 Boylston Street

The Toll Brothers proposed 244-unit luxury housing development at 528 Boylston Street is perhaps the best example of why the 40B housing law is so destructive to planning and proper development in this day and age. Its scale and design are totally incongruous with the well-established neighborhood; it dangerously exacerbates safety and traffic congestion in a neighborhood which hosts 4 schools containing one-quarter of Newton's school children; it will severely impact already highly-sensitive wetlands; and, does not provide significant affordable new housing.

    • Adds 400 vehicles (1100 daily trips) to one of the most congested intersections in Newton.

    • Major intersection for 3,500 students at Newton South High, Brown and Oak Hill middle and Bowen elementary. Nearly 1/4 of all students.

    • Cars, buses, bicycles and walking students clog main and adjacent streets times twice a day;

    • Access to the development is directly on and off Route 9.

  • Insufficient affordable units available and no guarantee that available will accommodate families requiring 2-3 bedrooms.

  • Significant portion of land is environmentally very fragile. Great concern development will exacerbate conditions.

  • Insufficient on-property parking for guests/deliveries. Likely lead to neighborhood parking.

  • Overall size, bulk and design are completely incompatible with the neighborhood.

Charlemont Project

The Northland Project and its successor, the Charlemont Project (Northland II) are but two more examples of extreme 40B development. They do not bring significant affordable housing to the city, and they create myriad problems that will impact all of us: infrastructure (water, sewer); new schools; and more traffic congestion. The Charlemont will create more serious traffic congestion because of its dependence on the very heavily trafficked Needham Street area. It is imperative that this project be reviewed with great attention to the Northland Transportation Demand Management plan which encourages the use of alternate transit modes, including public transit, shared transit, walking, biking and teleworking in order to reduce single-occupancy automobile trips.